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How to Use BibTeX-Related Commands for LaTeX Documents

In order to use BibTeX in LaTeX, you need to know the following commands: \bibliographystyle{<style name>}, \bibliography{bib-file}, and \cite{KEY}. In this short guide post, we will discuss what each of these commands do and how to use them in your LaTeX documents.

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bibliographystyle

The citation style is defined by bibliographystyle{<style name>}. BibTeX style files control the appearance of the bibliography and citations. BibTeX style files have a .bst extension and contain instructions in a stack-based programming language that controls the formatting of bibliographical entries. By default, LaTeX offers plain, unsrt, alpha, and abbrv as styles. natbib and jurabib are two LaTeX packages that provide extensive natural science and humanities additions, for example.

bibliography

The bibliography is created in the document by the command \bibliography{bibfile} if the file name of the BibTeX file with literature records is bibfile.bib.

cite

In a LaTeX document, the command \cite{KEY} is replaced by the citation given in the BibTeX file with this ID, which, for example, is (Author, Year) in the final PDF.